general-studies

The polls for General Studies Student Council open on Monday, April 12, at 10 a.m. and will remain open until Thursday, April 15, at 10 a.m. The polls for the Barnard Student Government Association reopened on Wednesday, March 31, at around 4:30 p.m. and will remain open until Monday, April 12, at 12 p.m.

The School of General Studies’ 2021 Class Day ceremony will feature Elegance Bratton, GS ’14, as keynote speaker and Christopher Thompson, GS ’21, and Qimeng Shi, GS ’21, as the class of 2021′s valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively. Bratton, Thompson, and Shi will each address the General Studies class of 2021 virtually on Wednesday, April 28 during Class Day.

Say it too early and people freak out. Wait too long and people wonder why you’re hiding information. There’s a sweet spot, after you’ve made a connection, laughed over a shared experience, and that’s when you want to say it. The conversation doesn’t arrive there naturally, so you have to steer it there: Oh, I’m in GS. You don’t consciously analyze these decisions; rather, as an adult, a sensitivity to the comfort level of others has become second nature. Run water over stone long enough and it softens in recognition of the current.

I am a rare breed within the School of General Studies: a dancer with no plans to abandon my art in pursuit of another career. I came to Columbia to acquire skills to enhance my artistic practice. Outside the walls of Columbia, my particular dance language—an amalgamation of hip-hop, West African dance, and jazz—took me from studying acting at Juilliard to Broadway rehearsal rooms and film sets. As a young performer dancing behind pop artists and working with dance companies, I slowly became fascinated with the roles of director and choreographer in theater-making. This inspired me to go beyond merely performing and instead begin crafting my own stories. I pivoted toward directing and choreographing, and I found that my interest in dances of the African diaspora had an intellectual component that could be nurtured in a classroom setting. So I returned to school. Dance lies at the center of my work, and it is something I continue to nurture.

Saidiya Hartman, professor of English and comparative literature, has been appointed to University Professor. Only 17 other faculty members hold the distinction—Columbia’s highest academic honor—that allows them to set their own instruction schedules and teach across schools and departments.

It is time we hold the administration of the School of General Studies to its word. If administrators truly mean that their primary goal is to make General Studies as affordable as possible, they must change their transfer credit policy to accept online classes from other accredited colleges and universities. It would save General Studies students tens of thousands of dollars in student debt.

A School of General Studies student by day, Christina Clark straps on her pointe shoes by night to perform with New York City Ballet, one of the nation’s premier ballet companies.